


Upside Down

by On_Sonnshine



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: (?), Angst, Being Lost, Confrontations, Gen, Slightly implied Prinxiety I Guess, Technical kidnapping, Threats of Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-29 14:56:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17810114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/On_Sonnshine/pseuds/On_Sonnshine
Summary: Sometimes, the lines between who's right and who's wrong become blurred- and sometimes, it becomes perfectly clear, that no one is particularly wrong, or right, at all.





	Upside Down

Logan sighs, waving a hand at Roman.  
  
‘I’m leaving. Feel free to join me, I’ll have dinner ready by the time you all find your way home, I’m sure.’  
  
Logan stands there for a long, long, moment. He pauses, looking down with a frown.  
  
‘I can’t…’ Logan looks to them with wide eyes, and hesitantly, Patton reaches out, motioning downwards.  
  
Logan’s tie tugs slightly, but otherwise he stays firmly planted on the ground.  
  
‘I...can't. I can’t sink out, something is preventing me from...’ Logan looks to Roman, brows knit. His annoyance has been replaced with an almost palpable...something.  
  
There’s a tense silence for a long moment, only broken up by Phillip snorting, and Roman steps forward again on wobbly legs.  
  
‘Roman, where are we?’ Patton’s voice is shrill with a sharp mix between concern and fear, and Roman’s heart drops into his stomach, shattering on impact.  
  
‘I- I-’ Roman stammers in response, fingers tightening on his sword as he stumbled to a stop, looking around. Green lights scar the ground from above, the moon and stars a sickly shade of green lain against a deep, deep grey. None of them knew just when the blue and white had changed.  
  
Roman swallows thickly, glancing back to where Patton and Virgil are perched on Phillip, and then to where Logan walks beside him.  
  
‘I-...I don’t...know.’  
  
‘ _You don’t know?!_ ’  
  
That’s Virgil, and Roman jumps, wincing at the hiss. He turns, but Virgil has already leapt off of Phillip, nearly stomping up to Roman. ‘You created this place, didn’t you, how do you not _know?_ ’  
  
Roman stammers out a few broken syllables, gesturing weakly around himself. Logan barks a, ‘Watch it’, at him, but Roman barely registers that he’d hit the other Side with the sweep of his arm.  
  
‘I- I...Virge I- baby- I didn’t- I didn’t make this,’ Roman turned, looking out at the trees, decorated in golden leaves that sway in the intense wind, ‘I don’t use these colours, I don’t, I don't-’ Roman gestured to the blood red dirt beneath their feet, ‘I didn’t do _any_ of this.’  
  
Virgil stares at him, and Roman’s reaches out to take hold of Virgil’s hand at the sight of the colour draining from his features.  
  
‘That’s- that’s impossible.’ His voice is much softer, now, and he shakes his head, reeling back hard, ‘That’s impossible, Roman, you probably forgot-’  
  
‘Virgil I promise you, my dear, I would remember such a thing as _this_ \- we’ve been walking for far, far longer than I’ve expanded my realm.’  
  
Virgil goes to open his mouth, but they both start at the sound of shuffling. They both turn, Roman shifting closer to Virgil, sword lifting- but there’s Logan, glancing back at them with an almost puzzled frown.  
  
He doesn’t say anything- just waves them to follow him, and before Virgil or Roman can say anything, Patton’s following him, hissing his name and for him to wait.  
  
‘Pat, Phillip won’t-’ Patton pauses mid squeezing himself through two trees, turning at the tug on the reins. Phillip stamps, tugging back- even if he could fit through, it didn’t look like he wanted to go, either way.  
  
Patton looked to Virgil and Roman with a half-hearted grin. His eyes tell a completely different story.  
  
‘I gotta-’ He jerks a hand between the trees, ‘Get Logan. Stay here.’  
  
Patton’s barely disappeared into the brush before Virgil’s starting after him with a sharp, ‘We are NOT splitting up-’  
  
‘Virgil-!’ Roman looks between Virgil hissing at his hoodie snagging on a branch and where Phillip stamps, unsettled.  
  
Roman quickly starts to Phillip, dragging him to that same branch, tying his reins to it with fumbling hands. ‘I’m sorry, buddy.’ Roman pats his nose, briefly, before turning.  
  
He stares into the darkness, before shaking away a shiver, and bracing his hands against one of the trees. The starkly orange bark feels almost too rough beneath his fingers, and he grits his teeth as he sucks in, stumbling a little when he manages to fit himself through the gap.  
  
He blinks, steadying himself, and looking up.  
  
The other three are there, Patton shivering and rubbing his arms, all staring at the same thing- the river.  
  
The ‘water’ is a rich purple, and a yellow-painted bridge leads over it. Logan’s knelt by the ‘water’s’ side, hand already submerged in the liquid.  
  
They all watch, silent, as he pulls his hand back out.  
  
The liquid breaks in a jello-like fashion, falling away in clumps that jiggle once they hit the ground. Logan makes a noise of interest, and pauses only briefly before leaning forward, sniffing at his hand curiously- that’s when Virgil steps forward, hoodie now gone- a look around sees it draped around Patton’s shoulders-, grabbing the back of his collar and hauling him off the ground.  
  
‘That’s enough of that, Logan. I don’t need you licking something you found in a weird fucking forest that we’re lost in, if you recall.’ Virgil crosses his arms, and Logan straightens out his collar with a pointed glare.  
  
‘I didn’t plan to lick it-’ ‘You said that about the sap about a mile back-’ ‘Guys.’  
  
Roman’s voice is deathly quiet, and they all pause at the intensity. They turn, and Roman’s facing the trees they came through. ‘Do you hear that?’  
  
They all listen, and Patton tenses.  
  
‘It sounds like-...’  
  
‘Laughter.’  
  
They all look at each other, uneasy, and Roman hesitantly steps forward. ‘We have to go see.’  
  
‘Roman.’ Virgil’s tone is sharp.  
  
‘Y’know how we make fun of people in horror movies who go check out every weird noise they hear?’ Virgil is beside the prince in a flash, grabbing onto his wrist, ‘You are those people.’  
  
Roman tears his gaze from the trees briefly to shoot a glare at Virgil, shaking him off.  
  
‘What else do we do, Virgil? Stay here and hope they go away?’ Roman’s shoving through the trees again before Virgil can protest.  
  
-  
  
They all stand frozen, there, eyes wide at the scene they’re met with.  
  
Deceit stands there, accompanied by six other men.  
  
Deceit’s outfit is far different than they’ve ever seen on him- he wears a black sweater-vest, yellow-dotted, a brass cane in hand.  
  
They each have rather distinct markings- one is so tall that Patton, at 6’4”, only comes to his shoulders, one is accompanied by a fox, and another holds a chittering raccoon to his chest. One slumps terribly, hair wild, and the one that clings close to Fox has deep bags beneath his eyes. Another has a scarf covering his mouth.  
  
Deceit quirks a grin at them, and he laughs. Laughs, and relaxes, waving his cane at the other men.  
  
‘Well, well, well. What _do_ we have here?’ His eyes crinkle, amusement colouring his tone as he sweeps a circle closer to them, earning Roman backing up, sword raising. Virgil rolls his eyes at the line.  
  
‘Woah, now, Princey, I don’t want to bring you any harm-’ He snickers, and Logan and Patton nearly leap out of their skin when cold hands fall on their shoulders.  
  
They whip around to find Bags standing there, chuckling.  
  
‘Well, not much harm.’ Bags grins as he pushes them into the middle, now blocking the trees they’d come through.  
  
But where Patton, Logan, and Roman all press back, packing in closer together, Virgil rolls his eyes.  
  
He steps forward, looking to Deceit with a raised brow, leveling him with a rather deadpan look. ‘This is you? You all did this? Made this whole place by yourselves?’  
  
Virgil looks around. His demeanor is entirely too suddenly-calm for the comfort of the Light Sides.  
  
_It’s just like we always wanted_ , Virgil muses to himself, but outwardly he rolls his eyes.  
  
‘I’m a little impressed. Now, Team Rocket rejects, how do we get out of here?’  
  
Deceit pouts at him, sparkling eyes not at all dampened by Virgil’s calm.  
  
‘Oh come now, Virgie,’ Virgil cringes a little at that one, ‘We’re just having a little fun. You, after all, _did_ invade on _our_ territory.’  
  
Roman steps forward then, sword lax. ‘Now wait a minute-’ Deceit bares his teeth at him, hissing gutturally, and Roman snaps his mouth shut instantly.  
  
‘Good dog.’  
  
Virgil shoots Deceit a hard look, and the other Side offers a smarmy smirk, crossing his arms over his cane and leaning onto it, back arching inwards.  
  
‘Something the matter, my one and only?’ Sugar coats the endearment, sickly-sweet, and Virgil understands that something, is wrong, instantly.  
  
‘My apologies for interrupting- but what is going on here?’ Logan breaks the silence, coming up from behind Virgil, shifting closer to him at the way Deceit turns to him with an annoyed frown.  
  
‘They’re bluffing, guys, half of them don’t even kill bugs.’ Virgil hates the uncertainty in his tone.  
  
Logan jumps, grabbing onto Virgil’s hoodie- and wincing a little when it slips off of Patton’s shoulders a little, only saved by Roman grabbing it- when Streetlamp brushes up beside him, swiftly followed by Raccoon and Bags on the other side.  
  
‘Oh, quit being a spoilsport, Anxiety. As though I haven’t caught you crying over fawns, old friend.’ Streetlamp’s voice is guttural, and deep, earning a bit of a shiver from Roman, whose eyes are darting back and forth between the other’s now closing in on them.  
  
‘You know, Anxiety,’ Fox’s voice comes from straight behind them, and Roman snaps a, ‘Quit- _doing that!_ ’ as they twist to face him, ‘For as much as you try to pretend that you know everything about us, we know a lot about you. And we’ve changed quite a bit..’  
  
He grins, raising a brow and leaning forward to ghost a hand along Logan, plucking his glasses from his face and propping them on his own head, in front of his Ray Bans.  
  
Another hand trails over Patton’s shoulders, and though his reflexes are normally quite sharp, the eldest Light Side can’t manage to grab the hand before it’s retreated, along with the person it belonged to.  
  
‘All we want is a little fun, Vee. A little payment for intruding on our private time.’ Deceit’s closer, now, close enough that Roman steps forward, sword now pointed straight at Deceit’s chest.  
  
‘Get back.’  
  
Deceit gives him barely a glance, hands falling to rest on his cane.  
  
He levels Roman with a calm gaze, stepping closer and resting a hand on the sword’s blade.  
  
‘Do it.’  
  
‘E- excuse me?’  
  
‘Kill me. Run me through, right now.’  
  
Hands fall on Roman’s shoulder, and hot breath hits his ear.  
  
‘C’mon, do it. Feel the sword pierce right through the flesh, listen to the blood squish and how he screams, don’t you want to? Don’t you want to feel the bone scrape your sword? Don’t you want to watch the blood pool under him? C’mon, brave guy, do it, if you’re so brave, kill him, right here in front of your family, let them see you do it-’ ‘ _That’s enough, A!_ ’  
  
Virgil snaps at Streetlamp, and it’s the first time he’s shown real anger at what’s going on.  
  
Streetlamp backs off, chuckling.  
  
‘Nine against, mm-’ Deceit tosses a long side-glance to Logan, ‘Three, Princey. Make your choice.’  
  
Roman’s hands shake, and Deceit flashes a toothy grin as Roman lowers the sword.  
  
Deceit snickers, offering a pleased hum. ‘Thank you.’  
  
He turns back to face them all, and Virgil shifts as the other’s drift closer in towards them.  
  
‘Now. Shall we negotiate how you get out of here?’

**Author's Note:**

> If you get up in my comments talkin about Deceit bein evil uwu you didn't comprehend ANYTHING from the summary I don't want any black and white comments fam there might be a second chapter that'll help don't get in here stinkin up the place i'm already inches from committing at all times


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